Really Funny: Eleanor Roosevelt on What's My Line

[Captain Hilts]

Run time: 08:04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX0wmS3gV0I   Posted on YouTube: March 02, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 13, 2008 By DU Member: Captain Hilts Views on DU: 757

 
I love her 'Game Face' while she can't say anything.

FYI: She's 70 years old here. She went deaf in her right ear in the late 30s and she clearly is having a hard time and I think the note she writes to the host is to ask him to repeat the question. She often wore a hearing aid but I guess in situations where you have crowd noise mixed with quiet conversation it was pretty useless. And the questions are often asked in passive case or with double negatives.

[Nay]

1. You know what gets me? This was a game show everyone watched,

and to listen to it now, with its extremely literate host and guest players, makes one realize how far this country has fallen culturally. Pretty sad.

[Captain Hilts]

2. I know. And everyone's dressed as if to go to the Rainbow Room afterwords. nt

[Lautremont]

3. Not to mention that they're speaking very nicely about the UN,

which you don't hear much on TV these days.

[Lautremont]

4. A nice quote I read about Eleanor Roosevelt was from an injured soldier she visited.

"When she came in, I thought she was the homliest woman I'd ever seen," the soldier said, "and by the time she left, the most beautiful."

[Captain Hilts]

6. That's also been attributed to Karsh...

but no doubt a lot of folks had that reaction.

I can't remember who pointed it out, but they noted that when Eleanor was visiting all the troops in the hospitals, one thing that really enhanced the Great White Mother image she had was that she was physically bigger than most of the troops who hadn't been smaller than a mother figure since were 12 or so. So, her leaning over your bed was like being 12 again.

[Lautremont]

7. Karsh quoted the soldier in one of his portrait books - that's where I read it.

I guess if you quote something long enough, it becomes yours!

[Imagine My Surprise]

5. Wow, you really made my evening!

I'm 52, and barely remember those wonderful old shows. I even had the good fortunate of having a bit of a mentorship from Steve Allen. What ever happened to wit?

[stlsaxman]

8. wit was ceremoniously tortured and then slain by Cartman of South Park

please tell a little of your mentorship w/ Steve Allen!

[JDPriestly]

9. She was the most wonderful woman in all of American history.

[Captain Hilts]

10. She's really this country's first multi-media female rock star...

Ben Franklin was a rock star. Mark Twain was a rock star.

But, imagine trying to avoid the Roosevelts in the '30s. They were on the newsreels, in magazines, on the radion in the papers. There was just no getting away from them. ER got more letters her first year in the White House than Herbert Hoover got in 4.